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Awful arm injury, please help!

for the last 3 weeks, ive rested my arm, so no badminton.
the reason for this is i developed pain in my inner elbow, similiar to that of golfers elbow. and the pain used tp radiate up my arm. the pain is the sort of feeling your get in your neck when you've slept in an awkward position (twisted nerve or whatever)...anyway it KILLS on and off court!

so, i get this in my upper arm. but now i played again yesterday, and the pain in the elbow has dissappeard, but the pain in the arm has gotten worse, infact it has spread...along the bone to under my arm pit. anyway, anti inflammatorys like ibuprofen and diclofenac kill this pain (the latter better than the former).

But i dont want to play using painkillers all the time! and it hurts for days after playing aswell, so i have to keep takin the pain killers for a week afterwards.

the pain is in my upper inner arm and maybe a little in the shoulder area. if i keep the bone pressed and flex the muscles in the inner arm the hurt is similar to that twisted nerve feeling.

however, i dont experience any pain in my lower arm (after the elbow).

has anybody experienced anything like this?? andybody got any advice?

im currently on a physiotherapy waiting list and only started playin badminton about 5 months ago (wheni could sometimes play up to 3/4 times a week for about 2/3 hours) but in the past 5 weeks ive only played like 3 times.

I'm inclined to guess that the racket tension is pretty high. If you're not hitting cleanly, the vibrations transmitted back to your forearm can be detrimental. What tension are you playing with? And how do you play? Do you smash/drive a lot?

I'm inclined to guess that the racket tension is pretty high. If you're not hitting cleanly, the vibrations transmitted back to your forearm can be detrimental. What tension are you playing with? And how do you play? Do you smash/drive a lot?

-dave

thanks for your reply dave,

i actually use a beginners racket with the original string, a YONEX ISO 65 LT. i used to smash and drive a fair bit when i started a number of months ago, but not too hard since i never developed enough power. but after 2/3 months of playing this pain prevented me from smashing or driving a lot hence i mainly played the net or drop shots, with the odd overhead clear, but even this can trigger the pain.

as any beginner i used to frame the shuttle alot, but do so less now. and i use a proper forehand grip, but often use the same grip when playing backhand shots because i cant change fast enough.

i didnt realise this was a pretty common injury!
anyway, at the time of my last post i didnt have enough time to describe the exercises, but i do now, so all you guys that have emailed me, i hop this helps!

OK, what you need is an elastic band (called a thera-band) about a yard long. the dimesions of this band are about 15cm wide by 60cm long. my physio gave me mine. they come in different colours representing different resistances, yellow is weakest, red one up and green a more difficult one. the idea is to work your way up.

what yo do is tie the thera-band in a knot half way (so its around 30 cm long) around a door handle (ideally at waist height). Stand and Face the wall. raise your elbow so that its at 90 degrees to your upper arm (ie like your holding a stack of heavy books using both arms). hook your hand on to one end of the thera-band, keep your elbow in at the side and pull AWAY from your body and SLOWLY bring back the arm, then repeat this action ten times.

as muscles work in pairs, its a good idea to work the other muscle too. it the same technique, except you face away from the wall and bring the arm INTO your body. repeat 10 times.

repeat the above three times, doing ten reps each time, so by the end you will have done 30 reps. do this 3 times a day. it should NOT hurt! if it does, its causing damage, so use a more elastic band or use a longer band (so you dont end upo stretching it as much).

another useful exercise (this time for the elbow joint) is the strengtheing of the tricep. wat you do hook the thera-band around a door handle once again. kneel down, hook the band in your hand (at this point your elbow should be at 90 degrees or less to your upper arm) and push down so that your arm is parallel to your body. wat your doing is simply extending the arm down against resistance. once again, three times a day.

one final one i was prescribed was "Bagpipes" where you bend a pillow in half and squeeze it in between the side of your body and upper arm (like a person playing bagpipes). keep squeezing for 10-15 seconds, then relax for 5 seconds and squeeze again for 10-15 secs. repeat this untill you've sqeezed 10 times. it sounds easy but after a while it starts to hurt!. After the first two weeks, try to increase the time you squeeze for by 5 seconds each week, so by the third week you wanna be squeezing 15-20 secs each time. again, 3 times a day.

work your way up the bands, 2 weeks at a time. hopefully, by the first week, you'll be well on your way to recovery.

Remember to this exercises slowly, as this helps the tenndons!!!! if your left handed, reverse the direction (ie away from body or into body).

i think the injury may have been caused by gripping the racquet to tightly. GRIPPING THE HANDLE TOO TIGHTLY OVER EXTENDES CRUCIAL TENDONS, MAKING THEM VULNERABLE TO INJURY.

i have remedied this by apply a super PU grip over my original Yonex one, so that the handle is larger and also the tacky feel is reassuring, because you dont have to grip as hard to ensure your fingers or thumb dont slip. incidentally, i feel more more comfortable playing with this grip (both its size and feel). I couldnt recommend it more highly.

and probably the MOST important thing i used to neglect was stretches. STRETCHES ARE VERY IMPORTANT! DO THEM BEFORE AND AFTER GAME!! SPEND AT LEAST 5 MINUTES STRETCHING!!!!!

you can stretch your arm

over and behind your back

"Lock" your arm underneath your chin using the other one

hold your arm out plams down then use your other hand to pull back the hand at a right angle to your forarm (your fingers should be pointing at the celiing).

hold your arm out plams down then bend your hand down so your fingers are pointing at the floor use your other hand to pull IN the hand at a right angle to your forarm.

put both palms on the wall, standing in a neutral position and pull shoulder blades down.

do each stretch for about 20 seconds, and do the whole thing TWICE! it becomes easy after a while!

I'm new to the community but I have suffered from sports injuries throughout my 20's. I'm only 29 but I had a lot of back pain playing football a good few hours a week. My advice is cut your amount of playing time until you properly heal. I had that same pain in my neck for ages and it isnt such a good idea playing on painkillers. I'm not sure how you play but I can imagine you probably play a lot of power shots. Try easing up a little I know i get caught up sometimes in the game and try smashing too much.

yea i know. i call this the "weakling sindrome". i used to have that too when i was weak a few yrs ago. It would get so bad i literally couldn't even play netshots! i was dying out there.
then i quit badminton for some time, started to train boxing, did lots and lots of push-ups, and there you go. when i came back to badminton i didn't have those problems again. just do push-ups, you're a badminton player so you don't have to go all the way down. your elbows should bent at max 90° angle and that's it. you need to do them with some explosiveness, short bursts that is. do 10 and then 15 seconds rest and so on